When You Are Addicted?

After completing my third practice of the week, I will whole-heartedly announce that I am addicted to yoga. Though I prefer to go to a hot class, I started off my crave a couple of years ago with regular yoga. Basically, both are fantastic...so fantastic that I want to share my reasons why I am in love:

1. I am the strongest I have ever been and strive to master the poses in which I hold myself up on my hands.

2. I am the most flexible I have ever been and strive to bend into the advanced version of each pose.

3. I can balance a lot better than I ever could and strive to master all balancing poses with my eyes closed.

4. Though my drink of choice has always been water, I drink even more of it now, so I constantly feel cleansed and fresh. I can't remember the last time I tasted salty sweat in a class!

5. There are significant improvements in my ability to calm my mind and let things I don't need to clog my brain with go.

6. I am more resilient to work stress caused by difficult people.

7. I fall asleep a lot better because I am aware of when my mind is going a million miles an hour and effortfully shut it down for the night.

8. I can focus better and enter a meditative state (a short one, but meditative nonetheless). What a feat for me, and an important ability I want to conquer.

9. I am more good-natured and look for ways to be more generous or helpful to my family, friends, and the random people that cross my path. Little things like saying "have a good day" to the lady who cleans our washroom at work, or smiling at the person that you ride the elevator with goes a really long way. If someone is pleasant to you, doesn't it make you want to be nice to the next person you come across?

10. I am in better control of my emotions (but hey...cut me some slack once a month because I am still a woman). If I turn into an Emo Evelyn, I catch myself and work very hard to revert back into a Positive Paulina!

11. My friends on board the yoga wagon and I share all the "I thought I wasn't going to make it out alive" and "whoa, did you see me do that pose I couldn't do before??" moments. And I continue to thank naturopathic KH for getting me started.

12. When you conquer a pose, it makes you feel like you can take on anything. ML and I have committed to working up to a level where we can go on a yoga retreat with our favorite teacher, as well as take the Teacher Training. Oh just imagine how rewarding it is to become an instructor! I think we call this ambition.

13. I have become ever more chill.

14. I practiced yoga for the first time today hungover. It sounded like a horrible idea going in with the whole mega dehydration, pounding headache, and not moving faster than a sloth aspects. But my dedication to the activity, as well as to my fellow yogis I spend my Saturday morning with got me out of bed, and it ultimately cured me!! I floated out of the class smiling and giddy with the alcohol sweated out :).

15. And as the all-encompassing reason, my overall well-being is on the up and up.

Namaste :).